A California Superior Court has ordered Kevin Morris, the entertainment lawyer once dubbed Hunter Biden's "sugar brother", to pay $50,000 to former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler and the conservative research group Marco Polo, ending a years-long legal dispute in which Morris accused Ziegler of impersonation and harassment. The claims fell apart, and now Morris owes the man he sued.
The ruling caps a protracted fight that began with a 2022 phone call. Morris picked up the phone believing he was speaking with a Democratic operative about information tied to the Hunter Biden laptop. After the call, he received an image of a squid, the phrase "NOTHING IS BEYOND OUR REACH," and the words "Marco Polo", the name of Ziegler's nonprofit. Morris concluded Ziegler had tricked him, Fox News Digital reported.
Morris then sued, accusing Ziegler of criminal harassment, criminal impersonation, false light, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Three years of litigation later, the court sided with Ziegler, and stuck Morris with the bill.
Jennifer Holliday, the attorney who represented Ziegler, told Fox News Digital that the case should never have gone forward. She pointed to a glaring hole in Morris's claims: no phone number tying Ziegler to the call was ever introduced.
Holliday stated plainly:
"There was no phone number that was ever presented to the court, to the Court of Appeal, to me, in discovery, anywhere."
Without that basic piece of evidence, the harassment and impersonation allegations had no foundation. The court agreed, and the $50,000 award covers Ziegler's and Marco Polo's legal expenses from defending against the suit.
Ziegler did not mince words about Morris's motives. He told Fox News Digital that Morris bore responsibility for enabling Hunter Biden's conduct.
"Morris is the one responsible for all the bulls*** that Hunter pulled over the last couple years."
Holliday said the $50,000 does not begin to make up for three years of legal battles. A person familiar with Morris's case told Fox News Digital that Ziegler's representation had initially requested $300,000 to conclude the matter. The court settled on a fraction of that amount, but Ziegler's team has secured an additional safeguard: a debtor's exam request that kicks in if Morris does not pay within 30 days.
The outcome adds to a broader pattern of legal setbacks for figures in Hunter Biden's orbit. Hunter Biden himself has been reportedly living abroad as his debt and unpaid legal bills pile up, and the financial pressure extends to those who backed him.
Morris reportedly loaned Hunter Biden approximately $6.5 million, a staggering sum that earned him the "sugar brother" label. Fox News Digital also previously reported that Morris donated $29,900 to now-former Rep. Eric Swalwell's gubernatorial campaign, weeks before that campaign collapsed after several sexual assault allegations emerged against Swalwell. Morris and Swalwell had met multiple times during the House Oversight Committee's investigations into Hunter Biden's business dealings.
The California ruling is not the only legal front where Ziegler has gained ground against the Biden camp. In a separate case, Hunter Biden asked a federal judge to voluntarily dismiss a 2023 laptop-related lawsuit he had filed against Ziegler, citing severe financial problems and claiming he is millions of dollars in debt. Ziegler opposed the dismissal, arguing that Hunter had misused the legal system and demanding attorney's fees, the New York Post reported.
Robert Tyler, Ziegler's lawyer in that case, said Hunter Biden's "failure to produce documents and refusal to attend his deposition reveals that he is running scared." A judge must still decide whether to grant Hunter Biden's request to drop the suit or consider Ziegler's objections. Ziegler himself called the lawsuit "an abuse of the legal system" that "can't stand."
The pattern is hard to miss. Lawsuits filed against Ziegler and Marco Polo, first by Morris, then by Hunter Biden himself, have produced no victories for the plaintiffs. Instead, they have generated legal fees, court orders to pay the defense, and a growing record of claims that could not survive scrutiny.
Hunter Biden's broader legal and financial troubles have been well documented. Court filings have revealed mounting debt, and questions about who has been covering his legal bills have drawn their own legal attention.
Holliday told Fox News Digital that she has filed a petition with the Supreme Court of the United States, asking the justices to evaluate how California's anti-SLAPP statute was applied in the case. Anti-SLAPP laws are designed to protect defendants from meritless lawsuits that target constitutionally protected activity. Holliday wants the high court to examine whether the process worked as the Constitution intends.
She framed the stakes in direct terms:
"It's not really how I envisioned it would play out, and I don't think that's how the Constitution envisions that something like this would play out, which is why we filed a petition with the Supreme Court of the United States to review."
Holliday added: "I certainly hope that they will take a really hard look at what happened here because this is not a situation that should have ever happened."
Whether the Supreme Court takes up the petition remains an open question. But Holliday's argument, that the legal system allowed a baseless suit to drag on for three years before the defense prevailed, resonates beyond this one case. The concern is familiar to anyone who has watched politically connected figures use litigation as a weapon, forcing opponents to spend years and fortunes defending themselves even when the underlying claims lack evidence.
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden has continued to make headlines for his legal entanglements. He has publicly defended his own unprecedented pardon while criticizing others, a posture that sits uneasily alongside his record of failed lawsuits and unpaid debts.
One loose thread remains. Holliday told Fox News Digital she was "not at liberty to discuss" who the caller in the 2022 phone conversation actually was. Morris believed it was a Democratic operative. He later concluded it must have been Ziegler. But no phone number was ever produced, and the court found no basis for the accusation.
The identity of the caller, in other words, was never established, yet it was the entire foundation of a lawsuit that consumed three years and untold legal fees. Morris filed suit, accused a former White House policy analyst of criminal conduct, and came away $50,000 lighter with nothing to show for it.
The broader questions surrounding those who bankrolled and defended Hunter Biden's legal battles continue to generate scrutiny. Law firms have demanded Hunter Biden's messages with donors asked to cover his legal bills, adding another layer to the financial web around the Biden family's courtroom struggles.
Ziegler, for his part, founded Marco Polo as a conservative nonprofit research group. He previously worked in the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy as a policy analyst. His willingness to fight back, in California, in federal court, and in the public square, has turned what was meant to be a legal offensive against him into a series of defeats for the other side.
Kevin Morris accused Garrett Ziegler of harassment, impersonation, and emotional distress. He produced no phone number. He won no ruling. And now he owes $50,000 to the man he sued. The case dragged on for three years, cost both sides dearly, and ended exactly where the evidence, or lack of it, always pointed.
When you use the courts as a cudgel and the facts aren't there, the bill eventually comes due. Morris just got his.
